Last year, 161 condominiums sold or were put under contract in Albany, Troy, Saratoga Springs, Cohoes and Glens Falls, according to a report by T.L. Metzger & Associates LLC in Albany.

Officials in those cities green-lighted an additional 483 condominiums, but the state Attorney General's office has not yet approved the offering plans. As a result, those units can't be marketed and deposits can't be accepted for them.

While Saratoga Springs is commanding the highest prices--an average of $326.07 per square foot--Cohoes has more units in the pipeline, 384, than any other community.

The report is the second issued by T.L. Metzger in eight months, and the first to look at a complete year's worth of information gleaned from the Capital Region Multiple Listing Service, developers, other brokers and the news media.

According to the report that was released last August, 591 condominiums sold in Albany, Troy, Saratoga and Schenectady between 1993 and June 2007.

That means nearly one-fourth as many urban condominiums sold in the region last year as there were in the previous 15 years combined.

Condominium construction isn't limited to local cities. Thousands of condos and townhouses have been built over the past 35 years in suburban towns such as Colonie, East Greenbush, Clifton Park, Rotterdam, Niskayuna and Guilderland.

The region's first condominiums were built in East Greenbush in 1972, according to Joseph Conlon, principal of Diamond Realty Management in Latham, which manages more than 5,000 condominum and homeowner associations.

Conlon estimates there are 9,000 to 12,000 units that are part of condominium or homeowner associations in the region, about half of which are condominiums.

In Cohoes, for instance, no condos were sold during the 15-year period covered by the last Metzger report and Glens Falls wasn't included.

In 2007, 28 condos were sold or deposits were received in Cohoes and 32 were sold or deposits were received in Glens Falls.

The units appeal to young professionals and retirees who like the idea of living in an urban environment without the headaches of shoveling snow and parking on the street.

Of the six cities included in the most recent report, Schenectady had the smallest inventory, with 31 condominiums.

There are no units on the drawing board, but that could change as commercial development accelerates downtown, according to Tracy Metzger, president of T.L. Metzger & Associates.

The roughly 500 jobs expected to be created at GE Energy by 2011 and the relocation of the Golub Corp. headquarters from Rotterdam to Nott Street near downtown Schenectady could also fuel demand for condos in the city, according to Metzger.

The Capital Grand, a 125-unit proposed condominium in downtown Albany, has received about 36 deposits since the property went on the market in January, said Sean Sezlik, a sales representative. Prices range from $179,900 to $516,000.

Norstar Development USA has expressed confidence the nine-story tower will be built if it that pace of deposits continues.

In Troy, however, the owner of the former Mooradians Furniture building on River Street has shelved plans to convert the six-story, red-brick building into 48 loft condos.

The owner, NADC in Brooklyn, has cited high property taxes, lack of indoor parking and the fallout from the national subprime mortgage crisis as the reasons why it had trouble finding buyers.